No check on use of black films

The Punjab and Haryana high court recently issued a notice to the state director general of police (DGP) warning of contempt proceedings for failing to comply with Supreme Court's orders to check vehicles with black films. However, buses and other vehicles keep plying with black glasses, at least in Hoshiarpur.

HT had highlighted the matter in January too, when private buses were seen ferrying school girls to the police lines, the venue of Republic Day function. However, the issue was simply ignored and the police failed to take any action and the practice is still continuing. The same buses have been deployed these days to ferry participants of the national yoga championship.

These vehicles remain parked outside the indoor stadium, under the watchful eyes of the cops for hours together, yet no illegality is seen or noticed. Ministers and district civil and police officials keep coming to the venue, but no one seems to have noticed a gross violation of SC orders. Buses with tinted windscreens can also be seen plying on highways and link roads.

The SC had prohibited the use of black films on the windscreens and side glasses of all vehicles throughout the country. Specific directions were issued to the home secretaries, the DGPs and the police commissioners for compliance of the directions.

The court had also made it clear that appropriate action, under the provisions of the Contempt of Courts Act, 1971, would be taken in case the authorities failed to comply with the orders. Following the gangrape of a girl in a bus with tinted glasses and curtains in Delhi in December, the chief justice had emphasises the removal of black films from all types of vehicles, maintaining that the brutal incident could have been avoided, had the SC orders been complied with.